THIS WEEK: North Dakota (13-8-5, 8-5-5 WCHA) looks to end a season-long 4-game winless skid when it hosts Wisconsin (11-8-5, 8-5-5 WCHA) on Friday and Saturday at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

UND and Wisconsin have identical 8-5-5 league records and are tied for fourth place in the WCHA with 21 points, three points out of second place and four points behind league-leading St. Cloud State.

MEDIA COVERAGE: All UND men's hockey games, home and away, can be heard on 96.1 FM (The Fox) and on stations across the UND Hockey Radio Network. Veteran broadcaster Tim Hennessy is in his 34th season as the voice of the men's hockey program. Steve Olson serves as color analyst for home games. Free audio is available at UNDSports.com.

This weekend's games will be broadcast live on Midco Sports Network, FOX College Sports and DirecTV.

Video webcasts of each game can also be purchased with a UND Insider subscription at UNDSports.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Receive real-time updates during all UND men's hockey games by following
@UNDMHockey. Additional coverage can be found at @UNDSports and @UNDSID.

Fans can also follow the action via live chat at UNDSports.com, featuring Brad Schlossman and Tom Miller of the Grand Forks Herald and Jayson Hajdu and Matt Schill of UND Athletics Media Relations.

TICKET INFORMATION: Approximately 200 tickets remain available for Friday night's game. Tickets for Saturay's game could become avaialble on Ticket Release Thursday. Tickets can be purchased at the UND Box Office at Ralph Engelstad Arena or online at Ticketmaster.com.

ABOUT THE BADGERS: Wisconsin, with just one loss in its last 14 games (10-1-3), posted a home sweep over last-place Alaska Anchorage with 5-2 and 2-1 victories last weekend.

Wisconsin is unbeaten (7-0-3) in its last 10 WCHA contests, including a 5-0-1 mark on the road during that stretch.

Junior forward Michael Mersch is tied for second in the nation with 15 goals, one behind the national lead.

The Badgers are the WCHA's second-best team defensively, allowing just 2.00 goals per game. Goalies Landon Peterson (.934 SV%) and Joel Rumpel (.930) rank second and third, respectively, among the WCHA save percentage leaders.
UW COACHING STAFF: Mike Eaves (UW ‘78)is in his 11th season at Wisconsin and is 220-164-49 (.565).

LAST ACTION: UND is 0-2-2 over its last four games, the team's first 4-game winless streak since October 2011.

It is UND's longest such streak since going winless in seven games (0-5-2) from Feb. 8 to March 2, 2002.

NO REST FOR THE WEARY: This weekend's series continues a stretch in which UND will play 12 of its final 14 regular season games (and 10 in a row) against teams currently ranked in the USCHO.com top 20 poll.

OH, WHAT A KNIGHT!: Senior forward Corban Knight (High River, Alberta) is tied for second in the national scoring race with 35 points, trailing only UNO's Ryan Walters, who has 39.

Knight had his 19-game point streak come to an end last Friday night, just the third time in 25 games this season he's been held off the scoresheet. It was the 4th-longest streak in school history and the longest in 25 years:
However, Knight was right back on the scoresheet the next night in a 2-2 tie against SCSU, scoring one of UND's two goals and assisting on the other.

Knight has scored in 39 different games during his collegiate career, and UND has lost just two of them (31-2-6).

Earlier this month, Knight was one of 77 players nominated for the Vote For Hobey fan voting process at HobeyBakerAward.com. Fans can cast their votes through March 10, 2013. Phase two of fan balloting will begin on March 22 from the list of Top Ten Hobey Baker finalists. The fans' vote accounts for a full 1 percent of the total ballot in each phase in selecting this year's award recipient.

THE COUNT OF DANNY KRISTO: Linemates Knight and Danny Kristo (Sr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) are the highest-scoring teammates in NCAA Division I men's hockey with 274 points between them, and Kristo leads all players with 142 career points:
Kristo scored his 57th career goal on Saturday night, tying him for the active lead among NCAA DI men's players:
Kristo and linemate Knight are also among the active leaders in career assists:
Last Friday's 3-1 loss to No. 16 St. Cloud State marked the first time all season both Knight and Kristo were held without a point in the same game.

Refer to page 6 to see where Kristo and Knight rank on UND's all-time scoring list.

This season marked just the second time in the last seven years that UND won 10 games before Christmas, and just the fourth time during Hasktol's nine-year tenure.

WORKIN' OVERTIME: Following Saturday's tie 2-2 with St. Cloud State, UND is now unbeaten (2-0-5) in seven overtime games this year after going winless (0-1-3) in extra time last season.

NODAK NATION: Prior to the end of the National Hockey League (NHL) lockout, North Dakota had been the top hockey draw in all of North America this season.

UND is averaging 11,684 fans in the 11,634-seat Ralph Engelstad Arena, more than any other NCAA, American Hockey League, East Coast Hockey League or Canadian Hockey League team.

Last season, North Dakota led the nation in total attendance (419,981) and average attendance (9,999.5) for all games -- which includes home, away and neutral -- and also led the country in total home attendance (249,501).

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS: UND has lost just three of its 15 home games this season (7-3-4) and has lost just five of its last 31 home games, including WCHA playoffs, going 20-5-6 (.742) during that stretch.

Last season UND went 15-4-3 (.750) at Ralph Engelstad Arena.

CAPTAIN'S LOG: With 147 career games played, senior captain Andrew MacWilliam (Calgary, Alberta) is the active leader among WCHA defensemen and ranks fifth nationally among all skaters. St. Cloud State's Drew LeBlanc is the active leader with 153:
In 25 games this season, MacWilliam has a goal and five assists and is a +8.

GOLDEN GRIMALDI: Freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi (Rossmoor, Calif.) helped lead the United States to a gold medal at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Hockey Championship in January in Ufa, Russia.

Grimaldi scored the game-tying and game-winning goals in the gold medal game, his first goals of the tournament, and was named the player of the game for the U.S. He became UND's 19th medalist at the tournament and the 12th to win gold:

Additionally, Anaheim strength coach Sean Skahan (pronounced ‘skane') is a former UND assistant strength coach, and former UND football letterwinner Mark Chipman is the chairman of True North Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Winnipeg Jets. Seventeen former UND players appeared in the NHL last year, tying the program's most since 1993-94.

Last season, 17 UND products appeared in the NHL, tying for the program's most since 1993-94.

Finley, Genoway, Malone and Watkins each made their NHL debuts, while Greene led the Los Angeles Kings to a Stanley Cup championship, defeating Parise, Zajac and the New Jersey Devils in the finals.

LUCKY 13: Connor Gaarder's (So., Edina, Minn.) hat trick on Nov. 3 against No. 12 Boston University was UND's first since March 11, 2011, when Matt Frattin and Jason Gregoire each scored three times in an 8-0 win over Michigan Tech in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

Gaarder, a walk-on, had entered the night with four goals in 36 career games and had yet to score a goal in his first three games this season.

All three of his goals on Nov. 3 either tied the game or put UND in the lead. His third and final goal was the power-play game-winner.

FAREWELL SEASON: The 2012-13 season is UND's last as a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA). Beginning in 2013-14, UND will join the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), which will also consist of Denver, Colorado, Miami, Minnesota Duluth, Nebraska Omaha, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan.

Since joining the WCHA in 1959-60, UND leads the league in both regular season (15) and playoff (11) conference championships.

In 2011-12, UND made league history by becoming the first school to win three consecutive Broadmoor Trophies as WCHA Final Five champions.

CONFERENCE CALL: UND was ranked No. 2 in both the WCHA preseason media and coaches polls, and freshman forward Rocco Grimaldi (Rossmoor, Calif.) was named preseason rookie of the year in both:

Grimaldi received the rare distinction of earning preseason WCHA Rookie of the Year honors for the second straight year. Grimaldi was the consensus choice for preseason rookie of the year last season before missing all but four games with a knee injury.

Grimaldi, who had one goal and one assist in those four games, retained his rookie status for 2012-13.

HELLO, MY NAME IS: UND's 2012-13 roster features seven newcomers, including five incoming freshmen, one returning freshman, and one junior transfer.

Schmaltz was a first-round draft pick of St. Louis in June, while Gothberg was taken by Boston in the sixth round of the 2010 draft.

The returning freshman is forward Colten St. Clair (Gilbert, Ariz.), who sat out the entire 2011-12 season due to an NCAA eligibility issue.

The junior transfer is goalie Clarke Saunders (Brockville, Ontario), who came to UND after two seasons at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Last season, Saunders posted a solid .906 save percentage and an NCAA-leading 34 saves per game for a UAH team that went 2-28-1.

An eighth player, junior forward Mitch MacMillan (Penticton, British Columbia), became eligible to play for UND in January. MacMillan transferred to UND last January after a season-and-a-half at St. Cloud State. He is the older brother of UND sophomore forward Mark MacMillan.

CAPTAIN CRUNCH: Rugged senior defenseman Andrew MacWilliam (Calgary, Alberta) was elected team captain in a vote of his teammates earlier this fall.

Both MacWilliam and Knight served as assistant captains as juniors last season.

FEELING A DRAFT: UND's 2012-13 roster features 14 National Hockey League draft picks, including 2012 1st-rounder Jordan Schmaltz (Verona, Wis.). The freshman defenseman was taken in the first round (25th overall) by the St. Louis Blues.

UND boasts six draft picks among its defensive corps, the most in program history.

MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE?: UND advanced to the NCAA postseason tournament for the 10th consecutive season in 2011-12, the second-longest active streak in the NCAA behind only Michigan (22).

It was also the 27th all-time postseason appearance for UND. Head coach Dave Hakstol has now led the program to the NCAA tournament in each of his first eight seasons behind the UND bench, including Frozen Four appearances in five of those eight years.

NICKNAME/LOGO: The University of North Dakota officially retired its longtime "Fighting Sioux" nickname and logo prior to the 2012-13 athletics season.

UND's varsity athletics teams will operate without an official nickname until 2015, when the University will undertake the process of adopting the third official nickname in school history. Until 2015, the Uuniversity's varsity athletics teams will be referred to as "the University of North Dakota," "North Dakota,"
or "UND."

UND adopted the "Fighting Sioux" nickname in 1930 after previously being known as the "Flickertails."